Happily Ever After
by AleheatherCanon
Summary: It all starts when Spencer is partnered for a school project with Toby Cavanaugh, a boy she doesn't like at all. Little does she know, there's more to him than meets the eye. Meanwhile, Emily Fields has a large problem: she has feelings for Alison DiLaurentis, her straight best friend.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a story that will mainly focus on Spencer and Toby (Spoby), but I have included Emily and Alison (Emison) as a pairing because they are also going to be a main part of the story. I don't know how heavily I will feature other couples, but we will see over the course of the story. There will probably be mentions of other pairings, as well as appearances, but they will not have significant storylines like Spoby and Emison will. The story begins during their junior year of high school, so they are around 16 and 17 years old. Thanks for reading my story!**

* * *

CHAPTER 1

Spencer tapped her pen on her desk repeatedly, unable to concentrate on the lesson that her teacher was teaching. All that was going through her mind was, _Been there, done that._ It was simple: she already knew all of this material. She was usually ahead of the game in her classes. Sometimes, she read ahead just so she could be ahead of them. She was more advanced than the others, even in her large load of advanced courses. There was no other way to describe it than the fact that she was smart... intelligent... ambitious... and driven. So, this information about U.S. history that she was receiving was nothing new for her, and she didn't have to pay attention. She had already done the textbook reading weeks in advance, and had a superior understanding of the content, compared her classmates.

The only reason her head suddenly bobbed up was because her teacher mentioned something that she _couldn't_ anticipate. Something that she couldn't self-study for in advance. Something that she couldn't already know everything about. _A partner project_.

She knew she had to listen now. There was nothing in the textbook reading about doing a historical partner project. She would have preferred to work alone, but it was no big deal. Any of these students would be more than happy to work with her. In fact, they'd practically be _fighting_ over who got to be her partner, because they knew that whoever got to be her partner would be getting a solid A grade on whatever project it was. Unfortunately for them, their teacher had decided to take it upon himself to randomly assign the groups.

And then she found out the identity of her project partner.

" _Spencer Hastings and... Toby Cavanaugh_."

She turned her head to the back of the classroom, where Toby was practically falling asleep. Unlike her, it wasn't because he was ahead of the game on the content. It was simply because he didn't want to pay attention. The class was far too boring for him. He knew he didn't belong in an AP history class, but he was there anyway. He was there, and he got lucky enough to get Spencer Hastings as his project partner. Maybe he'd finally get an A grade on something in the class since he was working with her, and she'd probably do everything for the both of them, so he didn't even have to worry about trying to put in effort.

Spencer rolled her eyes at the sight of him, and flipped her head back to facing the front of the classroom. She never really talked to Toby Cavanaugh. All she really knew about him was that he was a slacker. She was also a firm believer that he didn't belong in an AP history class. She wasn't really sure why he was even there. He didn't seem to enjoy the content at all, plus he wasn't doing so well, either, so there seemed to be no benefits for him. She wasn't worried about the project at all, though. She was more than content with doing the entire thing. He could happily accept his A grade, and they could both move on.

"Together, you and your partner will created a presentation. Put as many images as you need, and as much text as you want, but make sure not to be reading off of the slides in your presentation! You need to project your voice to the class. Loud and clear! And to make sure both parties are working as hard as possible, I'll give you both a total grade _together_ for your oral presentation, as well as the physical presentation that you create. So, you can't just worry about yourself on this project! I'll hand out the papers with more instructions, as well as your assigned topics. Your presentation should be around ten minutes total. I'll try and give you guys a little bit of class time over the next week to get some work done, but the majority of it should be done outside of the class. So, _yes_ , get talking about schedules and free up some time, because you're going to have to be working together on this! I think I've covered everything that's necessary, but are there any further questions before I hand the sheet out?"

Now, Spencer was annoyed. She groaned internally. She was fine with doing the entire thing herself, but now she would have to work her ass off to push Toby Cavanaugh to make sure that he didn't give a crappy presentation, which he most likely would. She was not about to receive anything lower than an A grade just because of him! She couldn't let him drag her down. Therefore, she knew she would have to put in some time to make sure he actually knew what the hell they were doing.

Their teacher handed out the instruction sheet, which all of the students skimmed over quickly.

"Alright. Once you have a good understanding of the project instructions, go ahead and get out of your seats to meet up with your project partner and get some rough planning done. Figure out some times for work if you can. Maybe divide up which parts of the presentation that you're each going to cover. Get something done right now!"

Reluctantly, Spencer got up out of her seat and went to the back to meet up with Toby. She figured he wouldn't be willing to get up out of his seat. He looked freaking tired and lazy.

"I'm guessing you're disappointed because Mr. Hayes is grading you based on my presentation, too, huh?" Toby smirked.

Spencer grew more annoyed at the smug look on his face. It was like he was actually _happy_ that her grade was going to go down because of his unwillingness to participate.

"Why are you even in this class?" she rudely remarked. "I've seen your test scores. They're not so great."

"My parents wanted me to take at least one advanced class, but I don't like any of them. I figured history would be the easiest, and the least time-consuming, but _man_ , I was wrong," he chuckled, almost unaffected by it.

She didn't understand how unconcerned he was about his bad grade in the class. It was like he didn't care that colleges would see his horrible grade!

"No advanced class is _easy_ ," she scoffed. "At least not for _most_ people..."

Toby knew how she was. Condescending and conceited about her brains. She had the right to, though, didn't she? She wasn't wrong about her superior intelligence. He just didn't like hearing about it.

"Whatever. We're not here to discuss this," he rolled his eyes, now annoyed by her.

He was planning on being cool with her, but he lost that when she made a condescending remark about her intelligence.

"Oh, really? And we're here to discuss, in detail, what we're going to for our project?" Spencer raised her eyebrows. "Forgive me, Toby, but I'm just not buying it."

He ignored her.

"When are you free to work on it?" he asked calmly.

"Almost never. I've got clubs, sports, studying. I don't really have openings on my schedule to work for extra hours on a project that should only take a little while for normal people," she snapped.

Toby gritted his teeth.

"What the hell is your problem?" he demanded. "I mean, I heard you were a conceited bitch all over school, but I was hoping that people were just talking crap for the sake of it when Hayes assigned me as your project partner. I never did anything to you, so what the hell is your problem, Hastings?"

She felt a little bad now. She knew she was going too far.

"Nothing. I'm sorry. I'm just not willing to take a lower grade because you're unwilling to help out," she shrugged her shoulders.

"Unwilling? Didn't I just ask you when you're free to meet up to work on the project?" he scoffed. "You're really over the top."

"Fine. What about Friday, after school, at the library?" she offered.

"Yeah, that works. Thanks for freeing up a little time on your busy-ass schedule to work on the assignment. Much appreciated," he sarcastically remarked.

* * *

Spencer was still annoyed about the events of her history class. She knew she was being unnecessarily bitchy to Toby Cavanaugh, but she couldn't help it. She was frustrated by the whole situation. She groaned as she sat down at her cafeteria table where her group usually sat. She greeted her friends with an obviously weak and forced smile.

"What happened?" Emily asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"I got an annoying partner for my history project. And Mr. Hayes is grading our presentation _together_... so, if he sucks ass on our oral presentation and has no idea what he's saying, I get penalized for it, too. It's totally unfair!" Spencer cried.

"Wow, that sucks. I'm betting you'll do all the work on the actual presentation, too," Aria sympathized.

"Who is it?" Emily asked. "Who's your partner for the project?"

"Toby Cavanaugh," Spencer said with a venom on her tongue.

She didn't have anything against him before, but now she did. Something about him ticked her off from history class.

"I have no idea why the hell he's in AP history if he can't handle it at all," Spencer shook her head. "It's disappointing, and it's hurting my grade."

"Oh my God!" Aria cried. "I hate to leave in the middle of your huge crisis, Spence, but I totally forgot that I have an art club meeting today. I'll see you guys after school or something. Later!"

Aria got up from the table before they could respond and dashed off. Emily laughed quietly.

"Hanna's making up a test, and Aria's off to art club. I guess it's just us three today," Emily shrugged her shoulders.

Alison bit her lip, gazing over at Emily.

"I almost forgot that winter formal's coming up," Alison reminded.

"Will I even deserve to go to formal after the B I may be receiving on this project?" Spencer whined.

Emily laughed, rolling her eyes.

"Spencer, you can push through. Toby was my lab partner in chemistry. He wasn't that bad, okay? He was actually quite smart when he put in the effort. Maybe if you push him, he'll put in the same effort for this project you two have to do," Emily explained.

"The thing is, _I_ don't want to put in my time and effort just to push him to try. It's annoying!" Spencer cried.

"Hey, it's okay. You're gonna do really well. You always do," Emily laughed.

"Yeah, and who cares about this one project, anyways? You probably have an A plus in the class!" Alison laughed, rolling her eyes playfully. "If there's anything you should be worrying about, it's who you're going to be going with to winter formal!"

"Is that really the big concern she should have, Ali?" Emily chuckled.

"Yeah, it is! Because I heard something... a little rumor that's going on around school," Alison smirked. Spencer and Emily were both visibly intrigued. Alison elaborated, "I heard that Andrew Campbell's going to ask you to winter formal, Spencer. I mean, he's a little annoying and pretentious... and a pretty big nerd. But he's kinda cute. And he's like the male version of you!"

Spencer was stunned. She pressed her lips together. Andrew Campbell was going to ask her to winter formal? Spencer had been so consumed with school that she had barely even taken a moment to worry about her love life or her social life, and now she was hit with the bomb that a guy wanted to ask her to winter formal? She and Andrew were somewhat friends. They were co-presidents of the volunteer club at school. She knew he was smart. He was sort of controlling and bossy, but she wasn't one to complain about that trait. And to top it off, Alison was right that he was cute. He was really cute. He was on the water polo team, and Spencer had heard from some girls on the water polo team that Andrew had a killer set of abs. She wouldn't mind a date to the dance. It would be one night to loosen up and have a little fun, right?

"How do you feel about that, Spence?" Emily asked. "Are you interested?"

Spencer thought about it again. It seemed clear to her... of course she was interested! She didn't know him too damn well, but that was no reason to say no. Maybe it was time to _get_ to know him.

"Yeah... I mean, he seems pretty alright. Maybe it could be a good thing," Spencer shrugged her shoulders, trying to seem nonchalant, but on the inside, she was pretty happy that something was happening for her love life. Her friends were pretty active with dating. Aria had dated a wide variety of guys since the ninth grade, along with Hanna. Alison was vague, but she was always hinting at these 'things' she was having with other people. Emily kept her love life on the down low, but Spencer figured that a gorgeous girl like her was reeling people in. Spencer raised her eyebrows and shot a glare at Alison. "I just realized that you called me annoying and pretentious... and a big nerd. Since apparently, I'm the female version of Andrew Campbell?"

"Well, I'm not wrong," Alison laughed. "The more I think about it, the more perfect I think he is for you. He matches like all of your interests, as annoying as he is. Your ambitious attitudes are a match."

"So...? Would you say yes?" Emily asked, raising her eyebrows.

"I think so. All I'm saying is that I'm not opposed to the idea of going with him to formal at all..." Spencer revealed, a small smile forming on her face. "It's been a while since I've even thought about dating somebody."

"It's a good thing. You totally need to loosen up!" Alison exclaimed. "You were actually sitting here and freaking out about getting a B on a presentation because you have to work with Toby Cavanaugh. That is not a big deal at all!"

"Thanks for reminding me about that..." Spencer groaned.

She decided not to dwell on the project too much. She was feeling pretty happy that Andrew was going to ask her. She hoped the rumors were true.

"So, since you're so concerned with winter formal, Ali... who the hell are _you_ going with?" Spencer asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Alison blushed a little.

"Oh my God! Is there someone you're into? Or someone you're seeing?" Spencer asked.

Alison shook it off.

"Don't even worry about it, Spencer," she shrugged her shoulders.

Emily felt her heart sink at this information. For some reason, it bothered her that Alison was interested in somebody... probably some sleazy boy, maybe even an older boy who was in college. She did that sort of thing all the time. Okay, maybe it wasn't such a mystery why Emily was visibly upset by this information: she had kind of had feelings for Alison since freshman year. She didn't know how those feelings developed, but they just did. She had always been the closest one to Alison. Maybe it was because of the late nights that they spent at sleepovers, cuddling each other, talking about everything they could. She didn't know what the direct cause was.

All she knew was that she felt something for the blonde. It was electric.

"Come on, Ali... who is it?" Emily asked.

"It's not a good time to say," Alison shook her head. "I'll tell you if it becomes serious."

Emily felt bittersweet from hearing that. A good thing was that whatever she had with this guy wasn't a serious thing, but if this was more than just Alison being interested in a guy, it meant she was seeing him. And if it wasn't a serious relationship, it meant that they were probably just fooling around with each other. Emily felt disgusted thinking about that... thinking about a sleazy guy touching her. She just wished that she knew who this guy was, so she could at least feel secure that it was a good guy, and not some asshole that would end up hurting her horribly, or using her to fool around.

"You are so sneaky, Ali," Spencer laughed quietly, shaking her head. "You never tell us about the guys that you're seeing."

"I don't kiss and tell," Alison smiled proudly.

Emily's mouth went sour. Now she was imagining Alison kissing some sleazy guy. This was not going well for her at all. She had a crush on her _straight_ best friend. She hated to compete with Spencer, who was the master of complaining about how miserable her life was, and how hard her problems were, but Emily felt like she had a bigger problem than having to work with a supposedly incompetent Toby Cavanaugh on a history project...

But she wouldn't tell Spencer that.

She wouldn't tell _anyone_ that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi, everyone! Thank you for reading the first chapter of my story. I will try to update quickly, but there may be times that I get super busy during the week and can't update too quickly. I actually have a lot of things I** ** _should_** **be doing right now, but procrastinating is kind of a bad habit that I just can't seem to kill. Plus, writing this story is a lot more fun than doing the work that I should be doing... lol! Anyways, I'd also like to thank you guys for leaving reviews, favorites, and follows. Reviews on this new chapter would be much appreciated! But I digress... here is the second chapter of the story.**

* * *

CHAPTER 2

Friday arrived all too quickly...

Spencer found herself on her way to the school library immediately after her last class period finished. She had been dreading this day. She knew her behavior was quite a bit melodramatic, but she was quite protective of her academics. She could _not_ let her grades slip. Her parents didn't just check her final letter grade, they checked how she was doing on each individual assignment, so getting anything lower than an A on this project would be unfortunate and _unacceptable_. But the effort that she would probably have to put in to make Toby Cavanaugh bring himself up to A grade standards for this project wasn't very appealing.

She found a seat at one of the empty library tables, unzipped her backpack, and pulled out her U.S. history textbook. She flipped open to the chapter they were doing their project on. She pulled out one of her pencils and tapped it against the table while she waited for Toby to arrive. Her eyes constantly darted to the large clock hanging from the wall. He was already five minutes late, but that was no surprise to Spencer. She wasn't expecting him to be very punctual.

Finally, the library doors opened again, and Toby stepped inside. He gave her an acknowledging nod when he saw her sitting at the table, and started walking over there. He pulled backpack off of his shoulders, then re-adjusted his red-and-black flannel shirt before taking a seat across from Spencer at the table.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologized. "I had to take a phone call."

"Oh, really?" she asked in disbelief, raising her eyebrows.

"Uh... yeah..." he nodded his head, furrowing his eyebrows back at her. "Why are you saying it like it's not true? Do you want me to pull up my call history for you?"

"Whatever. Let's get some work done," she said. "I'm assuming you haven't even read the section, so you might want to start by doing that. I already have my textbook out if you need it."

"No thanks," he said.

" _No thanks_?" she questioned. "What do you mean by _no thanks_? Are you proposing that you're not even going to read the section for the project? Because I'm trying really hard to make sure this goes well, so if you can't even _read_ the section, then I don't know what to tell you."

He pressed his lips together, staying silent for a long moment. He smirked at her distressed face.

"You're telling me that you're making an effort to make sure that this goes well? Because all I've really seen so far is you making whatever accusations necessary to make me seem like the bad guy. Hell, you didn't even give me a single _chance_ ," he shook his head. "You've known me for all of five minutes, and you think you know everything about me, don't you?"

"I don't think my judgments are anywhere near wrong," she folded her arms.

He scoffed.

"Yeah, well... that's the thing about judgments. The people who make them never think they're wrong. That's why they even exist," he rolled his eyes. "Spencer, you don't know the _first_ thing about me. If you maybe asked me why I don't want to read your textbook, I'd have told you that it's because I already did the reading last night. In fact, I took some notes on it so we could use it to put our presentation together."

She stayed silent as he unzipped his backpack and pulled out a sheet of binder paper with history notes on it. He slid it across the table so that she could see it.

"The first thing you should know about me is that I'm not stupid, as you'd like to think. Sure, I don't compare to you, but I can do a decent job when I put some effort in. I've got a lot of stuff going on at home right now, so I'm not exactly interested in my schoolwork. But I figured that you really wanted a good grade on this project, and I didn't want to let you down. Sure, I don't care about my own grade, but I'm not the type of guy who would let someone else's grade suffer."

She felt a pit in her stomach. She really had been unnecessarily harsh on him. She looked down at the notes that he handed her.

Swallowing hard, she commented, "These are really good notes..."

"I made them as detailed as possible, so now we have all the information that we need for the slides. All we have to do is put it together now, so we'll be done, and you can be freed of me, because I'm clearly just a worthless piece of trash in your eyes. Isn't that right?" he asked.

"Toby..." she muttered, feeling extremely guilty now. "I didn't mean—"

"You didn't mean what you said? Yeah, you can try that as many times as you'd like," he laughed bitterly. "I don't want to waste too much of your precious time, which I'm already wasting right now, so we better work as fast as we can."

* * *

"How was practice, Em?"

Emily turned around, surprised by Alison's voice echoing in the girls' locker room. Her sharp heels made a loud sound that continued to echo as she took steps towards the dark-skinned brunette beauty, who was dripping with water from the swimming pool. Emily pulled the towel she was holding away from her hair.

"G-good," she answered. "I actually practiced for an extra thirty minutes. That's why I'm still here now. What are _you_ still doing at school, though, Ali?"

Alison laughed quietly.

"I was in detention for texting in class," she explained.

Emily raised her eyebrows.

"You needed to text in class _that_ urgently? Was it worth it?" Emily asked.

"That person I'm seeing right now wanted to talk. I couldn't ignore him. College guys don't have a ton of free time," Alison smirked. "Plus, I think it was worth it. I'm seeing you now, aren't I?"

"We can talk any time..." Emily bit her lip. Her heart sank. She was getting it on with some college guy? Emily hated thinking about that. He was in _college_. There was no chance that he didn't want sex from her. She looked up at Alison worriedly. "You're dating a college guy? Isn't that... weird?"

"No. It's way better. High school boys are way too immature... take Noel Kahn, for example. Pretty face, immature attitude. College guys have a _little_ more maturity to them, if you find the right ones. Besides, we're not _dating_ or anything. It's not some kind of exclusive thing," Alison shrugged her shoulders.

"Then what is it?" Emily asked.

"We're just having some fun together. That's all, Em. Relax," the blonde giggled, taking closer steps to the swimmer.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emily asked. "That could mean anything, Ali."

Alison smirked.

"What? Are you jealous or something, Emily?" Alison raised her eyebrows.

"W-why would I be _jealous_? I just don't want some college guy to hurt you... is that so wrong?" Emily asked defensively.

"No, it's not wrong. It's cute, actually. I appreciate you looking out for me," Alison smirked. "Anyways, shouldn't you get changing? I can drive you home, if you want."

"Oh... sure," Emily nodded her head.

She turned back around to face the blue locker that contained her clothes, and pulled out her sweatshirt and jeans from it. She felt Alison's heavy gaze on her, which made her uncomfortable. She was about to change, and Alison would be staring right at her.

She kept her back facing Alison as she dragged her one-piece swimsuit off of the top half of her body. Alison saw nothing but her smooth, tanned skin. The blonde licked her lips, undeniably feeling something from the sight. With her back still facing Alison, Emily pulled her sweatshirt over her head. Now was the hard part... putting her jeans back on.

"Ali... do you mind turning around while I finish changing?" Emily asked.

She flickered her eyes up and down Emily's body once more before nodding her head and turning around to face the door of the locker room. As quickly as she could, Emily pulled her swimsuit off entirely, and then slid her underwear and jeans back on.

"You can turn around again," she announced.

Alison did just that.

"Do you want to come over today?" Alison asked, biting down on her lip hard.

Emily blinked repeatedly as she pulled her hair out of her sweatshirt.

"Don't tell me you have to study or something... it's Friday," Alison laughed.

"Yeah, sure... I can come over," Emily said, nodding her head.

She wasn't sure of how much she could handle hanging out alone with Alison right now. They hung out all the time, but Emily's feelings for her had been intensifying lately, especially right now, after finding out that she was fooling around with some college guy. She was quite evidently jealous. And she figured she never had a shot to begin with, considering the fact that Alison was straight, but it hurt her even more to know that she was seeing somebody. At least right now, she needed some type of buffer to keep her from thinking too much about this while they were hanging out.

"Um, why don't we ask Spencer to tag along, too?" Emily suddenly suggested. That was her idea of a perfect buffer. Spencer Hastings had such a sharp eye that if she caught a glimpse of Emily moping around over Alison, she'd start putting the pieces together. Emily was already surprised that Spencer hadn't realized that she had feelings for Alison.

Alison seemed noticeably annoyed with the suggestion.

Regardless, she agreed, "Sure."

"She should still be at school right now. She said she would be at the library working with Toby on their history project after school," Emily explained.

"Yeah, alright. We can go find her," Alison nodded her head. She stepped closer to Emily, grabbing the girl's arm. "Have you thought about who you want to take to winter formal? Any girls that've caught your eye lately, Em?"

Emily wasn't sure if Alison was aware that she was tormenting her by saying things like this. Emily wondered if Alison already _knew_ , and was just playing with her because it was fun.

"I don't know... not really. I haven't thought too much," Emily lied, scratching her head. "I've been really focused on balancing school and swimming recently."

"That's a shame... any girl would be _lucky_ to go with you."

Now Emily really felt like she was being played with.

"Winter formal isn't really too much of a big deal. I mean, at least it wasn't at first... I thought I had you and Spencer to count on to be dateless, but now she's probably going with Andrew Campbell, and you're going with your college guy. Hanna's got Sean, and I heard that Noel Kahn's going to ask Aria to go with him," Emily sighed.

"You can always just ask somebody. But don't worry about it too much, sweetie. There's no chance that I'm bringing my guy to formal," Alison laughed, shaking her head. "There's no way he's coming to a high school dance."

"Oh..." Emily furrowed her eyebrows. "I thought you wanted a date."

"I mean, it would be nice, but it's not a big deal. We'll probably hang out afterwards," Alison explained, shrugging her shoulders. "Besides, _you and I_ can just hang out together during the dance instead, since you're not planning on going with someone."

"Well, I'll see you there alone then, 'cause I can't think of anyone I can ask, so..." Emily said. She looked over at the blonde. "Where does he go to college? The guy you're seeing, that is..."

"Hollis College. He's a real smart one," Alison proudly told her. "Come on, let's get going before Spencer heads home and we miss her."

Before the two of them headed out of the locker room, someone else opened the door and entered. They stopped for a moment to let the new person inside of the locker room. A small smile formed on Emily's face when she saw who had entered: Paige McCullers, one of her fellow swim teammates.

"Hey!" Emily greeted enthusiastically.

"Oh... h-hey," Paige greeted awkwardly, scratching her head. "My dad wanted me to practice extra for the meet next week, so I ended up coming back to practice again..."

Paige was in quite a situation. Not only was she feeling awkward because she was in the same room as Alison DiLaurentis, who she was seriously afraid of, but she was also just naturally awkward around Emily Fields. The truth was that she had a tiny crush on Emily since they first met when they joined the swim team in the ninth grade. She never said anything, though, because Paige had never come to terms with her own sexuality. Paige knew that she was gay, but she just didn't know how to tell her family or friends. She was too afraid to say anything. But it made her happy to find out that Emily had come out as gay. She wondered if maybe she was right about their connection. Maybe Emily had feelings for her after all.

But Paige couldn't and wouldn't do anything about it right now. It felt much safer to stay in the closet, where everybody thought she was a straight star swimmer headed off to a good college. She felt like people's perception of her would change if the came out as gay, and she didn't want that.

"Okay. I'll see you at practice on Monday," Emily said, waving at her.

Alison felt unsettled at the interaction. She was never particularly fond of Paige McCullers. They used to play on the soccer team together, and Alison never liked that girl. Plus, she had always had a feeling that Paige had a little crush on Emily...

* * *

Luckily, they caught Spencer just as she was packing up her things in the library.

"Hey, guys..." Spencer greeted, furrowing her eyebrows. "What are you still doing at school?"

"I got detention for texting in class, so I was still here way after school. So, I went to see Emily after her swim practice, and we decided that we're gonna hang out tonight. We knew you'd be here working on your project, so we wanted to ask if you want to hang out tonight," Alison explained.

"Oh, sure," Spencer agreed, picking her backpack up. "I just finished working on the project for the day, so I'd be happy to."

After Spencer gathered her things from the library, the girls headed back to Alison's house to hang out.

"Okay! I just ordered the pizza. They said it'll be here in about twenty minutes," Alison announced before sitting down next to Emily on the couch. She giggled quietly as she looked over at Spencer. "So, any word on Andrew Campbell yet, Spence?"

Spencer rolled her eyes.

"No. Maybe that rumor you heard was just a rumor. Maybe he's just not into me, and that's fine," Spencer told her.

"Come on!" Alison cried. "You guys would be so cute together!"

"Can we stop focusing on my nonexistent love life when you quite clearly have an existing love life?" Spencer challenged, raising her eyebrows. "Don't think I've forgotten how you mentioned that you're seeing some guy right now, Ali. I still want answers about that."

Alison tilted her head to the side.

"Fine... what do you want to know, Spencer? Aside from his name, because I don't want you internet stalking him," Alison gave in.

"I was never planning on doing that!" Spencer denied, folding her arms. "But fine, if I can't ask his name, can I at least ask where he goes to school? I'll have to scope the halls of Rosewood High to see who you've got secret chemistry with."

Emily felt uncomfortable, knowing that the answer to this question was certainly not an answer that Spencer was expecting.

"He actually doesn't go to Rosewood High," Alison answered, biting her lip. Spencer raised her eyebrows. The blonde continued, "He's actually in college... he goes to Hollis."

"Oh..." Spencer commented, speechless. She bit her lip. She couldn't believe that Alison was seeing a college guy either, although she wasn't unsettled about it for the exact same reasons as Emily.

Emily wasn't just unsettled by the fact that she was dating some older college guy. Of course, that bothered her as well, but she would still be upset by her seeing a guy who was their age. Just the mere fact that she was seeing somebody was enough to make her feel unsettled.

"Ali, are you sure that it's safe to be with this guy? I mean, I know some college guys can get pretty sleazy these days..." Spencer reminded.

"He's very intelligent. He's not some sleazeball like the immature guys at our school, Spence," Alison laughed. "If anything, I'm safer with him than I am with those sexually-driven, hormonal sleazes at RHS."

"Okay, okay... just don't do anything you might regret later," Spencer said.

"We're not having sex, if that's what you're worried about," Alison rolled her eyes.

Immediately, Emily felt some relief. She was worried that Alison was hooking up with him...

"Nothing's official between us, but he's a good guy," Alison told them.

And of course, Emily was still upset by the situation, even if they were's hooking up.

" _Anyways_... how was your _date_ with Toby Cavanaugh?" Alison joked, causing Spencer to roll her eyes.

"Shut up," Spencer folded her arms. She sighed as she recalled their meeting from earlier. She still felt really guilty about the whole thing. They worked in silence after he called her out for being overly-judgmental, other than a few words asking if the work they had done was okay. They got pretty far in their project, and Spencer was even more surprised to find that he was actually quite intelligent and efficient when he put the effort in. She certainly realized that she was too harsh with her judgments, and it had been eating at her ego since the discovery.

"Why do you look so distraught about your library date? Did _you_ end up hooking up with Toby?" Alison snickered.

Spencer felt her cheeks going red.

"You should shut up, but... I made a mistake when I judged him," Spencer confessed, biting her lip. "I hate admitting I'm wrong, but I really was when I said those things about him and was rude to him. He's a smart guy... and I ridiculed him for no reason... just because I judged him before getting to know him. Truth is, I don't know a real thing about him... He's obviously nothing like what I thought he was."

"I _knew_ you were being too harsh on him!" Emily cried. "He was a really great lab partner in chem, Spence. He's good at things when he puts the effort in. Apparently, he has a really hard time at home, too. He didn't tell me much about it, but he said he's going through something."

"Oh God..." Spencer ran a hand through her hair. "I feel so horrible about everything that I said to him... he's not a bad guy. He's not lazy..."

"Why don't you go cyber-stalk him, go to his house, and tell him you're sorry?" Alison joked as she flipped through channels on the TV.

"I don't even need to cyber-stalk him! I know where he lives, actually! He lives close to my house!" Spencer exclaimed, getting up from the couch. "Sorry to bail on you, guys, but this has been bothering me since he called me out for judging him. I need to tell him that I'm sorry."

"Spencer! You're being ridiculous," Emily laughed, shaking her head. "Why can't you just apologize to him on Monday or something?"

"Because I'm going to feel uneasy all weekend if I don't tell him that I'm sorry right now," Spencer announced. "I'll try and come back after the apology, okay? Pick out a good movie! See you in a bit!"

With that, Spencer raced out of Alison's house.

"Okay, she's totally crazy," Alison laughed, shaking her head. "But whatever... I'm kinda glad that we get to spend some time alone."

Emily stayed silent. But she didn't fight it when Alison reached over and took her hand, squeezing it.

"God, I've missed you," Alison whispered, settling her head onto Emily's shoulder now.

"We... uh... we see each other everyday, Ali," Emily reminded, biting her lip.

"I know. But when was the last time that we hung out alone? Just the two of us?" Alison smiled. Surprisingly, she turned her head so that her lips were touching the exposed skin on Emily's shoulder. She didn't kiss her shoulder, but she just let her lips rest there for a moment. Emily's heart rate increased exponentially. "Em? You wanna know something?"

Emily nervously nodded her head.

"You've always been my favorite... out of everyone," Alison told her.

"You're my favorite, too," Emily whispered.

She wished that Spencer the buffer was still there, because God... she didn't even care about Alison's college not-boyfriend right now. She was so attracted to her at this moment. She wished so badly that she didn't feel this way about her _best friend_... her god damn straight best friend who was seeing some college guy right now. Everything was going against this, yet she still wanted her so badly.

Alison picked her head up so she was staring right at the side of Emily's face. Emily tried to keep her eyes glued onto the TV, although she knew that Alison was gazing at her. Eventually, she gave up and looked back at Alison. It was a bad move, because she instantly melted. She couldn't help but look down at her plump pink lips... she couldn't help but feeling like kissing her best friend.

And there it was: she couldn't help but lean down and kiss her best friend.

It was soft and gentle.

Alison was so startled by the kiss. She knew that Emily wanted to kiss her at that moment. That wasn't the surprise. She was surprised that Emily actually did it. She actually leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.

"I'm sorry," Emily apologized, pulling back.

She swallowed hard. Alison didn't say anything.

They sat there in silence, consumed internally by confusion about what this meant for them. This was even harder on Alison, because she didn't know what the hell his meant in the slightest. At least Emily knew that she kissed her because she had feelings for her. She was _gay_. This was _okay_ for her. But for Alison? She was supposed to be straight. She was supposed to be seeing a guy right now.

But against everything that was "supposed" to be, she liked it. She liked the kiss. She liked it, and that was what scared her the most.

* * *

 **So, there's the second chapter! This ended up being quite a heavily Emison-centric chapter, but I'm not sorry at all! I love them a lot :). Of course, I love Spoby as well, so I'll try to give them more scenes in the next chapter. It's kind of slow as they start out, but rightfully so, since they've never met and they're not friends as of right now... but of course, that's all going to change. And change in their dynamic was definitely shown in this chapter! I guess Spencer learned not to judge a book by its cover...**


End file.
